Single-layer metal particulate tapes comprising ferromagnetic metal powder and double-layer metal particulate tapes having a thinner magnetic layer and a non-magnetic layer formed by simultaneous coating and thereby exhibiting improved output have been used in the field of broadcasting. The recent spread of high image quality broadcasting including high vision broadcasting and terrestrial digital broadcasting has boosted demands for recording media having higher recording density than before. In the field of data storage, too, the information to be dealt with has ever been increasing, and a rotary-head (helical scan) format used in broadcasting has now come to be used in this field. High recording density and highly reliable backup tapes like those used for broadcasting have been desired for data storage.
To cope with these tendencies, magnetic recording media are getting more and more smooth on its magnetic layer to have an increased linear recording density, and deterioration of running durability due to an increased frictional coefficient is of concern. Thinning of recording media is inevitably necessary in order to reduce the volume recording density so as to increase recording capacity, and attendant problems of running durability, such as tape edge damage, have been getting more acute. Because it is very difficult to maintain uniform contact between a head and a tape of reduced thickness, a high strength material, such as PEN or aramid, has come to be used as a substrate for assuring tape strength. On the other hand, active research and development has also been directed to the structure of a magnetic head, and heads providing good contact with a thin tape have been adapted. For example, Sony DTF-2 drives adapt a trench head (see High Data Rate Head Tape Interface-Update, 2000, U.S.A.). The trench head is designed to efficiently allow air entrapped between a spinning head and a tape to escape through the trenches to provide good head to tape contact. However, because the magnetic core of the trench head is softer than the ridges outside the trenches and wears faster than the outer ridges, the curvature radius of the head in the width direction (the direction perpendicular to the tape sliding direction) increases rapidly. It follows that the head to tape contact is deteriorated, resulting in considerable reduction of reproduction output and increase of error rate.
In the light of these circumstances, a cleaning tape for maintaining stable head to tape contact against head wear has been desired.